Factory fiberglass sub box

[bxroads]

Does the factory fiberglass box/enclosure produce decently when compared to wood? There's one for sale here in the classifieds and I am considering purchasing it if the fiberglass box is good.

http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/sh...008-210-SAN-TE

[EarmarkMarine]

The factory molded sub box is certainly constructed well, however, on many of them there is no effort to seal the box with a terminal cup where the wires pass through. Being a small sealed box (with a little correction) its okay under the driver's helm but definitely can't get the job done from within the port side locker. The Polk MOMO sub that occupied those enclosures does a miserable job in a small sealed box but comes to life in the correct bass-reflex enclosure. Very few woofers are so polarized in how they are loaded. But regardless of the particular woofer the port locker necessitates a bass-reflex enclosure and a vent to allow the bass radiation to freely flow from the compartment.

David
Earmark Marine

[cain0725]

sub

my 210 sante TE has a factory kicker sub under the port side storage, and it sucks,, cant even hear it hardly..

[wiggles17]

The factory molded sub box is certainly constructed well, however, on many of them there is no effort to seal the box with a terminal cup where the wires pass through. Being a small sealed box (with a little correction) its okay under the driver's helm but definitely can't get the job done from within the port side locker. The Polk MOMO sub that occupied those enclosures does a miserable job in a small sealed box but comes to life in the correct bass-reflex enclosure. Very few woofers are so polarized in how they are loaded. But regardless of the particular woofer the port locker necessitates a bass-reflex enclosure and a vent to allow the bass radiation to freely flow from the compartment.

David
Earmark Marine

Hey Dave,

Do you know of a sub that would work well with this fiberglass enclosure... and or could it be ported or would that not make a difference??

[EarmarkMarine]

W17,
If you seal the wire pass-thru with a good terminal cup and you move the enclosure to the starboard side, provided there is no obstruction under the dash, then this could work.
You can't retrofit a sealed box with a port because a bass-reflex encolsure is a delicate matter of tuning and usually requires twice the displacement when you consider the port volume and port wall.

David
Earmark Marine

[xrichard]

Another option is to vent the passenger side compartment so air can flow out from the space in which the sub sits...similar idea to moving the sub to the starboard side so it is in the open. It's a night/day difference and, in my opinion, sounded pretty good when I had it in my boat.

[EarmarkMarine]

True about venting the port locker. If I'm going to the trouble of venting I'm definitely going the route of a new bass reflex enclosure to get alot more acoustical leverage to offset the loss. Anytime you place a sub in a large compartment and expect to vent the radiation through a comparatively small opening you are goung to have a loss. But we've got to take the best that the individual boat offers. A sealed enclosure, or any enclosure for that matter, isn't going to fit under the driver's dash in many Nautiques.

David
Earmark Marine

[seth]

Here are some pics of how I vented my locker. It was easy and looks factory with the screen cover.

[xrichard]

Hey Seth--I came up with a similar solution. I didn't take pictures like you so I can't show the intermediate steps. Basically, in the same area I drilled six 5" holes (maybe 6"...can't remember off the top of my head) instead of cutting out the entire center of the panel. I then lined the opening in the vinyl with speaker cloth backed by foam (to give it a little body so I wouldn't see movement in the speaker cloth). As with yours, it's an inexpensive solution that looks like it might have come from the factory.

David--yeah, I agree the best solution is upgrading the sub (and the amp) in addition to venting. But, with a little labor and very little expense, I think the stock sub sounds pretty good. Just depends on how much money you want to spend since you should really be venting the area under the observer seat no matter what sub is placed there. I ended up with a WS XXX and Syn 1...but, of course, the cost was significantly greater than sticking with the stock set up.

[hpage]

Richard. Do you have any pics of your Syn1/XXX setup? Are you still using the factory amp for your coaxials?

I'm thinking of a similar setup with my 2007 SANTE

[east tx skier]

David, what is the volume of those enclosures? Do you think the Master Monitor series from Polk performs better in a sealed enclosure than the MoMos did? I have an 8" in a sealed box on the starboard side of my bow storage and get really good performance for it's size. Just curious if you have heard this series and your thoughts in the sealed enclosure for those of us with not much room in our closed bows. I think my max height clearance on the hump is 11".

[EarmarkMarine]

I'd have to have all the woofer's Thiele Small parameters to see how big an 8-inch bass-reflex enclosure would be. While I respect the quality of those Polk woofers, we mostly use JL Audio woofers so that is where most of my experiences fall. I can tell you that the enclosure will not be that large and that the difference will be roughly equivalent to dual 8"s.
We've had tremendous success converting the factory 10-inch MOMOs from sealed to bass-reflex. I would expect the MM series would be similar as the direct replacement (a little different and without the MOMO licensing!).

David
Earmark Marine

[east tx skier]

Good to know. Thanks, David.